Martinez

Plaintiffs Sabrina Martinez and Maria Canales appeal the summary judgment entered for defendants the County of Los Angeles, the county’s sheriff’s department, Sheriff Sherman Block and Deputies Jerry Gleason and Thomas Gibson. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm that judgment.

Facts and Procedural History

Shortly before 9 p.m. on November 24, 1992, an anonymous tipster phoned the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (the department) to report that an Hispanic man high on phencyclidine (PCP) was running around the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and McBride with a knife in his hand. Deputies Jerry Gleason and Thomas Gibson were on patrol nearby and answered the call.

When the deputies arrived in the area, they did not immediately see a man with a knife. Instead, they saw two juveniles spray-painting graffiti on a nearby Lucky’s supermarket and arrested them. The taggers were handcuffed and the deputies were talking with the owner of the store when they heard shouting and saw Luis Martinez (Martinez) standing on the south side of Olympic Boulevard with a knife in his hand. A photo of the knife is in the record. It is a carving-type kitchen knife with an…